The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1887-11-23
THE CLOSING SCENES.


We quote the closing scenes - simply
and eloquently narrated by Mrs. Clay
| ton:
I He was back at Brockie very early in
! the spring, to watch the great spectacle
of awakening nature He saw the first
tender green which spread itself over the
distant trees along the beautiful Codorus
valley like a gauze veil He superin-
tended the sowing Of those crops which
/ he was never to see garnered.
| In letter to distant member of his
| family, da ell June ., 1888, he says
There never was such a glorious
looking place as Brockie is just now. The
woods are a deeper green than you ever
/ saw them The grass is richer. Every
/ tree is loaded with fruit. You NAV well
say that it is fine stand of clover, for it
! is very tail, and there is as much Of it as
/ the ground gives room for. The wheat
promises the best crop We have ever had
I The broad expanse of oats fills the eve
with delight. The corn fields vex me,
because the wet weather retaris the eul-
tiyation of them. The garden is wonder
fully fine.
The bull that Mr. TiIden gave me is
perfect beauty. The COW got her horn
torn off The old Dick horse is as much
of a fraud as ever Dan and Tom are
sleek and fat | made nOthingouf of my
bullocks except an enormous pile of
manure, which is telling in its effects all
over the farm
To the same person he wrote on the
eth of August never felt better in
my life, inside and out, than | do to-
day"
On the evening of the llth of the same
month he sat in his library, as usual,
long after the rest Of the household
slept.
Upon his table lay few pages of man
uscript in pencil. the beginning of his re-
ply to an assault upon him by jefferson
Davis
ii was not upon this task. however,
that ne was engaged on the night before
he was fatally stricken. He had just re-
ceived the Life of Buchanan" by George
Ticknor Curtis He tore the leaves ea-
gerIy and recklessly apart with his I'm
gers. as was his way with book of
which he was anxious to get at the con-
tents-not at the place where he would
have found his own name on the page,
but at the chapter which set forth the re-
ligious experience and death Of his old
friend.
Before dawn he was i'll, and felt that
his own days were numbered.
Why dwell on the narrowing DAYS OF
that awful week Those who have fol-
lowed the story of his life will believe
that he felt no faint-heartedness when
he came TO die In his sick room ragged
battle FOR life in which his physicians
fought manfully and the patient submit
ted hereically but hopelessly to all the
tortures decreed by them.
A calm. courageous, trusting soul was
going out to meet its Maker, prepared to
render an account of the deeds done in
the body. He said:
"Why should fear to cross the dark
river when my Father waits on the other
side?" and then went on to speak with
as mnch composure of his departure as if
he were about TO start on journey Of
which he knew every foot of the way.
Once only his mind reverted to his own
fair fields, and he asked his wife to go to
the window and tell him if they looked
green.
While he still had strength and con-
sciousness, two days before the end came
he utt red this prayer:
80 Thou beloved and most merciful
Father, from whrm had NV being and
in whom | have ever trusted, grant, if it